Moscow Expects President Obama to be “More Flexible” on Missile Defense Shield

Russia expects Barack Obama to show more flexibility in a dispute over U.S. missile defense plans in Europe following his re-election as president, a top official said Thursday…

In March, Obama, unaware that he was speaking on an open microphone, told Dmitry Medvedev, then Russia’s president, that he would have more flexibility on the issue after the November election.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin appeared to be trying to remind Obama of his promise when he said Thursday that Moscow hopes that the U.S. president will listen to Russia’s concerns about the U.S.-led NATO missile defense for Europe.

“We hope that President Obama after his re-election will be more flexible on the issue of taking into the account the opinions of Russia and others regarding a future configuration of NATO’s missile defense,” Rogozin told an international conference in Moscow.

Russia has urged the U.S. to provide guarantees that any future shield is not aimed against it and threatened to target elements of the U.S. shield with missiles itself if no agreement is reached.

U.S. promises to inform Moscow about details of the shield aren’t enough, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Thursday, adding that Moscow will continue pushing for firm guarantees from Washington…

The Kremlin greeted Obama’s re-election enthusiastically… Putin wrote Obama a telegram expressing hope that the two countries’ relations would improve further and inviting Obama to visit Russia next year.

Referring to comments that Republican challenger Mitt Romney had made during the campaign, Medvedev said he was “happy that the man who considers Russia (its) No. 1 geopolitical foe won’t be the president of this very large and important country.”

Former Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said he hoped that being on a second term will allow Obama to focus more on relations with Russia than Romney would have with his first term.

Four more years of Obama “flexibility” and defense cuts, will leave the US military in ruins and unable to defend US allies, or even the US homeland, from Russia, China, Iran and their allies.

At that point US sovereignty, and even physical survival, will be in serious question.